Alan Bailey News

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.

Sometimes it seems there is so much theater happening that it's difficult to keep track of it all. From personal experience, despite all the datebooks, smart phones, tablets, desktop computers and laptops...it's hard to keep everything straight in this wacky business of the show.

Recent Broadway hits Mamma Mia! and The Little Mermaid - along with the 23rd year of the downhome-flavored Smoke on the Mountain - are among the highlights of the 2016 season at Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse, which was announced during a Wednesday morning press conference at the Playhouse in the midst of its 50th anniversary season.

Whatever type of entertainment escape audiences are looking for, Cumberland County Playhouse's 2016 Season offers something for everyone. From a magical chocolate factory to an underwater kingdom, to a romantic Greek island - and a dozen other locales - the Playhouse's new season promises to be its most exciting yet. 'We're thrilled to announce next year's lineup,' said Associate Producing Director Bryce McDonald. 'It's filled with some of the biggest titles to have appeared on Broadway in recent years. We've also secured the rights to new titles by the authors of some of the Playhouse's biggest hits, along with bringing back the perennial favorites, Smoke on the Mountain and A Sanders Family Christmas.'

Winners of Britain's Got Talent, Collabro, two-time Olivier Award nominee, Michael Xavier, and one quarter of boyband Union J, Jaymi Hensley are to lead the guests at Sam Bailey: Live in the West End. Sam Bailey, who won ITV's The X Factor in 2013, will take the stage in London's West End for the first time in her career for a one-off concert at the Lyric Theatre on 12th October 2015. She will also be joined by US composer Scott Alan, West End leading lady, Caroline Sheen and Les Miserables alumni The Boys of the Barricade.

The Wetumpka Depot Players are sending out smoke signals to River Region theatre patrons. The award-winning, Off-Broadway musical is returning to the Depot stage in celebration of the Depot's 35th Anniversary Season and opens tonight, July 30.

The Wetumpka Depot Players are sending out smoke signals to River Region theatre patrons. The award-winning, Off-Broadway musical is returning to the Depot stage in celebration of the Depot's 35th Anniversary Season and opens on July 30.

?The Wetumpka Depot Players are sending out smoke signals to River Region theatre patrons. The award-winning, Off-Broadway musical is returning to the Depot stage in celebration of the Depot's 35th Anniversary Season and opens on July 30.

After selling out three concerts at the St. James Studios with The Color Purple's Cynthia Erivo in May acclaimed composer Scott Alan went solo on May 3rd at the St. James Theatre. Below, watch 2013 X-FACTOR winner Sam Bailey sing Alan's 'Anything Worth Holding On To'!

Satire on religion can be fun to watch. Take The Book of Mormon, for example, with its ferocious attack on innocence and man-made intervention. On a much smaller scale, Smoke on the Mountain is an intimate up close theatrical experience that comes to life via its bluegrass-style gospel musical numbers. Some of the stories as told by the Sanders family, a group of traveling singers/musicians, who perform a one-night gig circa 1938 at the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, Mount Pleasant, North Carolina are wrenchingly funny. In a well-directed and very well-cast revival at Candlelight Pavilion Dinner Theatre, Smoke on the Mountain becomes a real audience pleasing entertainment.

A. D. Players announces that their first production of the new year Wedding Belles will open tonight, January 23 and run through February 15, 2015 on the Grace Theater stage. Like only Alan Bailey can: garden-club ladies, a soldier about to ship out, and an innocent young bride give a small Texas town nuptial nightmares in this hilarious Southern comedy. By the creator of Smoke on the Mountain.

A. D. Players announces that their first production of the new year Wedding Belles will open January 23 and run through February 15, 2015 on the Grace Theater stage. Like only Alan Bailey can: garden-club ladies, a soldier about to ship out, and an innocent young bride give a small Texas town nuptial nightmares in this hilarious Southern comedy. By the creator of Smoke on the Mountain.

Atlanta Lyric Theatre is proud to announce a holiday addition to its lineup! They're back! The Sanctified Sanders Family Singers return to the Marietta Square to celebrate the holidays with faith, family, and old-fashioned fun. Sanders Family Christmas, starring several members of the original Theatre in the Square cast, plays tonight, December 5-14, 2014 at First United Methodist Church of Marietta's Family Life Hall (56 Whitlock Ave., Marietta).

SANDERS FAMILY CHRISTMAS Sweetly Blends the Serious and the Silly

Cumberland County Playhouse's 2015 Golden Anniversary Season features stories of Tennessee, the South, and families, in new comedies and musicals by nationally recognized Tennessee playwrights and songwriters. The Playhouse continues to feature strong local talent, in both new works and great family favorites like The Wizard of Oz and the professional regional premiere of Disney and Cameron Mackintosh's Mary Poppins. Unlike movies and touring shows, attending a performance at the Playhouse keeps millions of entertainment dollars in the Tennessee economy, creating performance and production jobs and career opportunities!

First Night Award winning playwrights Dietz Osborne and Nate Eppler's Southern Fried Funeral will be featured among productions celebrating the Golden Anniversary of Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse in 2015.

Atlanta Lyric Theatre is proud to announce a holiday addition to its lineup! They're back! The Sanctified Sanders Family Singers return to the Marietta Square to celebrate the holidays with faith, family, and old-fashioned fun. Sanders Family Christmas, starring several members of the original Theatre in the Square cast, plays December 5-14, 2014 at First United Methodist Church of Marietta's Family Life Hall (56 Whitlock Ave., Marietta).

Beginning tonight, October 31, A Sanders Family Christmas, the heartwarming sequel to Connie Ray and Alan Bailey's wildly successful bluegrass/gospel musical Smoke on the Mountain, returns to Cumberland County Playhouse for its sixteenth year! It's Christmas Eve, 1941, and America is going to war. So is Dennis Sanders of the Sanders Family Singers. So the family gathers for one last holiday sing at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church before Dennis ships out to boot camp. Join Pastor Mervin Oglethorpe and the rest of the family as they share their music and witness - and send Dennis off with hilarious and touching stories and twenty-five Southern Gospel Christmas favorites.

Beginning Friday, October 31, A Sanders Family Christmas, the heartwarming sequel to Connie Ray and Alan Bailey's wildly successful bluegrass/gospel musical Smoke on the Mountain, returns to Cumberland County Playhouse for its sixteenth year! It's Christmas Eve, 1941, and America is going to war. So is Dennis Sanders of the Sanders Family Singers. So the family gathers for one last holiday sing at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church before Dennis ships out to boot camp. Join Pastor Mervin Oglethorpe and the rest of the family as they share their music and witness - and send Dennis off with hilarious and touching stories and twenty-five Southern Gospel Christmas favorites.

MainStreet Dayton and The Scopes Festival bring Cumberland County Playhouse's productions of Smoke on the Mountain and A Sanders Family Christmas to the historic Scopes Trial Courtroom of Rhea County Courthouse this September and November. Smoke on the Mountain (rated G, sponsored by Cracker Barrel Old Country Store), now in its 21st year at the Playhouse, and touring the Southeast, plays in Dayton on September 28 at 3:00 PM EDT, with A Sanders Family Christmas (rated G), in its 16thCCP season, visiting on Nov. 30, also at 3:00 PM.